Would you pay to play?

[Umbran]

Oh, I don't think it's a bit of a straw man. I already invest in prep time (labor), my materials, gas to get there, how great is my incentive to invest money play at the store?

First off, if you have another place to play, of course there's little incentive.

I come from the school of thought that if the prep work isn't itself part of the fun, you're playing the wrong game to begin with, so I don't count that as a cost. And likewise, a person usually has to pay for transport to any entertainment that isn't at home, so if we are comparing costs, that one doesn't make gaming more expensive in general (though it may for any individual, depending on where they live).

But beyond that, I think we just have different scales of what counts as a significant cost. I've been willing to do huge amounts of prep work, drive 10 hours each way, pay for hotel, gas, and eating out several meals for a weekend of good gaming. Maybe I'm crazy, but a short hop in the car, lugging few books around and $5 for an evening seems to me like a pittance, unless you're a starving college student or similarly really strapped for cash.

But I've been that starving student, too, and out of work and strapped or cash - and if you're not getting play elsewhere, that $5 for an entire evening still sounds like the cheapest entertainment to be found this side of a novel borrowed from the library. I'm just not seeing how this is somehow a bad deal, compared to how much entertainments usually cost in this world.

 

[thegrognard]

Pay to play? No way! Hell they should be paying me for running games for them, but don't. Besides, I get all my stuff online at a sweet discount and have a gameroom in the basement with a bar. Hell, I should start charging then.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Or, put differently:

$5 for 3 hours of gaming vs $8+ for 90 minutes of a movie?
...or $1/game for a pool table
...or $4/game for bowling...if you have your own gear
...or ¢50 to play an arcade game
...or $25+ for an amusement park or pro sporting event
...or @$15/person for 2 hours in a room at Chuck E. Cheese (it's $13 for kids, $18 for adults)...and that is not all-inclusive.

Now yes, there are cheaper places to go out and have fun, but really, $5 for 3 hours of gaming seems a bargain to me.

 

[Beginning of the End]

Say a bunch of you go out to the movies. Depending on your location, you're probably paying something like $8 each for 90 minutes or 2 hours of entertainment. Let us be gracious, and say it is $4 each per hour.

You're comparing apples and fire hydrants.

The $8 I pay for a movie ticket pays for both the seat I'm sitting in and the movie itself.

The $5 I'm paying to the game store is paying for the seat I'm sitting in and... nothing else.

I'm not saying the fee is unreasonable or that there might not be reasons to pay it. But the experiences I'm paying for are so disparate here (on the one hand, I'm primarily paying to be shown a movie; in the other I'm renting physical space) that comparing the two head-to-head like that is both pointless and misleading.

Realistically, if you're talking about 6-8 people, the $30-$40 fee is steep. You could get much better accommodations than a table in a public space for a comparable amount of money.

Now, if the game store were actually value-adding to the table with that fee (much like the movie theater value-adding the seat by showing me a movie while I'm sitting there), it might be a different story: Making a stock of miniatures and/or terrain available. That sort of thing.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The $8 I pay for a movie ticket pays for both the seat I'm sitting in and the movie itself.

No, it doesn't.

If you're seeing a major first-run movie in it's first month, $7.60 goes to the studio, and 40¢ goes to the cost of the seat. The seat, however, costs more than 40¢ per showing to provide. The remainder is covered by concession sales- you know, those $4 bottled waters, $5 popcorns (w/fake butter), $7 hot dogs and $3 candy bars.

If you don't buy any concessions, you're essentially freeloading. As the number of of concession patrons dwindles, the higher the prices for snacks go or more in the red the theater goes. Until it goes out of business.

 

[Kzach]

Or, put differently:

$5 for 3 hours of gaming vs $8+ for 90 minutes of a movie?
...or $1/game for a pool table
...or $4/game for bowling...if you have your own gear
...or ¢50 to play an arcade game

$5 AUD for 3 hours of gaming versus $18 AUD for 90 minutes of a movie.

... or $2 AUD a game on a pool table.
... or $16 AUD a game for bowling.
... or $2 AUD to play an arcade game.

Hmm... you know, the table is looking better and better.

 

[Mallus]

The $5 I'm paying to the game store is paying for the seat I'm sitting in and... nothing else.

Aren't you also getting a multi-hour session of D&D?

Which, BTW, the movie theater isn't offering...

 

[ExploderWizard]

They hold weekly, organised, tournaments for MTG, Yugio and all those other CCG's.

Thats the answer.

CCGs with organized tournaments are a big part of why so much play space is available.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Aren't you also getting a multi-hour session of D&D?

Which, BTW, the movie theater isn't offering...

You're getting it, but they aren't selling it.

Now, if they paid the DM a cut... or set up store-run games...

 

[Umbran]

The $8 I pay for a movie ticket pays for both the seat I'm sitting in and the movie itself.

The $5 I'm paying to the game store is paying for the seat I'm sitting in and... nothing else.

Maybe you see it that way. To me they are basically the same - I pay, I walk in, experience the entertainment, and walk out. Whether the experience was produced by a bunch of people in Hollywood or a bunch of live people at the table doesn't seem relevant. What matters is that the fee allows me to have the experience.

Realistically, if you're talking about 6-8 people, the $30-$40 fee is steep. You could get much better accommodations than a table in a public space for a comparable amount of money.

Maybe you can in your area, and maybe you can't. What you're looking for is essentially a few hours of conference room time, probably in the evening to night hours. There aren't that many places that provide that sort of thing, and the ones that do (in my experience, anyway) are looking for more money.

If you can find such, though, more power to you.